Moving to the Big Girl Bed

This post has been brewing for some time and will probably be long! Don't say I didn't warn you!

In June of last year, right after Evelyn turned 1, we found out we were pregnant with baby #2. We were super excited. It definitely happened a little faster than we expected, especially after our fertility issues the first time around, but we truly were thrilled. Upon getting that positive pregnancy test, I did two things: I calculated my estimated due date - March 11 - and I calculated how old Evelyn would be - 20 months.

This created a bit of a conundrum, seeing as how I hadn't really planned on moving Evelyn out of the crib until she crawled out or significantly outgrew it. But the cheap side of me really questioned buying another crib when I had a perfectly good bedframe I could use. So, after discussing it with Rob, we decided that 20 months - while young - was an okay age to move her up.

I had lots of fun decorating and I'm very anxious to reveal it to you but... sorry. Evelyn's kind of been sleeping in there and has successfully pulled things off the wall and dresser which means that it doesn't look anything like it should and I didn't take pictures before she got to it. I'm going to try and get it back together this weekend and take some pictures.

I had a goal date in mind of February 1. Baby #2 is due on March 11 and I wanted to give time to adjust. February 1 would give me at least a month and also some wiggle room in case the baby comes earlier than expected. We hit crunch time when I finally had to start threatening Rob to get him to move furniture out of the room so I could do decorating. We finished it including bed, wall decor, storage, closet, clothes moved, etc. on February 1st and just went ahead and moved her that night.

I didn't really know how to approach it. We decided not to do a bed rail for two reasons. One, I wasn't sure if we could get one tall enough as her mattress is pretty thick. Two, I just didn't want to deal with it. It's a full size bed (only because the frame is full size) so we put one side against the wall and I put a body pillow under the sheet on the other side with her crib mattress on the floor for some padding.

Then we just jumped in with both feet. I had everything prepared to do her nighttime routine. We put her pjs on, brushed her teeth, she came in and turned her music on, we nursed and rocked on her new bed, I laid her down and left. The first night was okay. She got up several times and I tried consistently going in and putting her back in bed. That didn't work at all. I tried going in and nursing/rocking again, no luck. Finally, we had friends over and my girlfriend went and laid down with her and she finally went to sleep. Thankfully, after getting her to sleep, she didn't get up until morning.

The next night was better, but she didn't take a nap that day and was exhausted. She went down on the first try after falling asleep while nursing and slept till morning.

The third night was worse. A repeat of the first. She again, didn't take a nap again and was over tired. Finally, she went to bed around 11 and slept till morning. I was beginning to question our decision. Neither her nor I could function on her sleeping this little. It was turning bad quickly.

The fourth night was when we hit rock bottom. Over and over again, we put her down. She cried. She'd get up and bang on the door. I'd try again. Then she completely lost it and had a utter melt down that lasted 45 minutes and involved LOTS of crying from her and me. I was exhausted. She was exhausted. She was crying herself to the point where I thought she would throw up and nothing I did would calm her down. Finally, I guess she wore herself out, climbed in the bed with me, nursed again, and went to sleep at around 11.

Then, I had an epiphany. The next morning, I looked in her mouth. BINGO! She was working on not one, not two, but THREE teeth! The only symptom we ever have of teething is sleep and every time I figure it out way late.

She's been napping terribly for a couple of weeks and throw everything else on top of it was a recipe for disaster.

So, the fifth night (after a nap at my moms in the pack and play, THANK GOODNESS), we did our routine on time and this time I gave her some teething tablets. She nursed/rocked, I laid her down awake, and left. I heard her in there a little bit. She got out of bed and was wandering, but was quiet. Within an hour I stopped hearing anything and went to check. She'd climbed back in bed and went to sleep! She's done this for the past three nights and slept all night long!! Her taking an hour and fidgeting/playing is totally normal so I think we may have found some success and it was all thanks to her ridiculous teeth!

Top that off with her taking a three hour nap today and I am one happy mama! Granted, I've had to hold and sway her to sleep for her nap, but I'll take it if we can just get her back on her good sleeping schedule.

I'm not calling the move a success just yet, but we've definitely made progress and I'm feeling much better. I have not worries anymore about her falling out of the bed and she has proved she can easily climb in an out of it (we have a little box for her to climb onto and I showed her how to step on the box spring to climb the rest of the way up) so I know that even if she gets down she can get back up. Also, it seems that she knows she is supposed to sleep in her bed and not on the floor. Hopefully this trend continues and we will have the worst behind us!

Here's my big girl sleeping in her big bed! I guess she's not a baby anymore... :(